The Journal's all-purpose sports report.

With a resounding 69-52 win against Xavier in the Big East Tournament title game here at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, Villanova was able to do something seemingly rare this conference tournament season: Lock up a No. 1 seed.

Entering the conference tournaments, No. 1 and undefeated Kentucky’s status as the NCAA tournament’s top seed was secure, while Villanova, Duke and Virginia—in some order—sat behind Kentucky for the other top spots, according to most projections. Read More »

The Journal provides live analysis of Saturday’s Harvard-Yale men’s college basketball game with a bid to the NCAA tournament on the line. Commentary is led by Andrew Beaton for the Ivy League playoff showdown at the neutral site Palestra in Philadelphia. Harvard defeated Yale 53-51.

3:35 pm (EDT)

Pregame

Andrew Beaton

Harvard and Yale have enough reasons to hate each other. Two of the oldest and most prestigious colleges in the country, they usually might be bickering over which institution is the premier beacon of higher education.

But now there’s this: For the first time in their centuries-old histories, Harvard and Yale are playing each other for the Ivy League’s bid to the NCAA tournament.

Harvard had beaten Yale in February, but when the Bulldogs beat the Crimson last Friday, it gave Yale a one-game lead in the conference with only one game to play. Then in a stunning turnaround, the Bulldogs loss to Dartmouth while Harvard went on to beat Brown, setting up this afternoon’s playoff game.

Looking at the makeup of both teams, this might be the most Harvard-Yale game ever. Harvard’s season was saved by political science class that taught senior Jonah Travis about “diffusion of responsibility”—a theory he helped apply to the leadership structure of this year’s Crimson team.

Meanwhile, their counterparts from New Haven are no academic slouches either. Senior Matt Townsend missed two games this season while he was busy earning a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

And get this: There’s even more than basketball going on this weekend. The two schools are also playing a best-of-three series in the ECAC men’s hockey tournament. On Friday, Harvard beat Yale 3-2 and they play again tonight at 7 p.m.

But for now we’ll stick to basketball, so stay tuned here for live updates, analysis, factoids and everything in between for this showdown in Philly.

In any other Formula One season, having one team blow away the rest of the field as comprehensively as Mercedes did last year might have been boring. Instead, the rivalry between its two drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, provided one of the most intense battles in years—a throwback to intrateam slugfests like Ayrton Senna versus Alain Prost.

The man in charge of refereeing that battle was Toto Wolff, the executive director of Mercedes-Benz Formula One. Now, with the same driver lineup, he’s hoping Hamilton and Rosberg can lead the way again. The Wall Street Journal spoke with him this week before he left for the first Grand Prix of the season in Melbourne, Australia, on Sunday. Read More »

Will Ferrell suited up for 10 Major League Baseball teams during spring training on Thursday and played every position as part of an HBO special from “Funny or Die” to support the fight against cancer. His efforts were closely followed on social media under the Twitter hashtag #FerrellTakesTheField.

The comedian, who co-stars with Kevin Hart in the upcoming movie “Get Hard,” did just about everything you could ask a major league player to do, from climbing the outfield fence, to tossing pitches, to joking around with the other guys on the field. He even bought hot dogs for fans. Read More »

One month ago, LeSean McCoy was the starting running back for the Philadelphia Eagles. One week ago, it looked like he’d be replaced by Frank Gore. Now, the carousel has landed on DeMarco Murray, who the Eagles may have wanted all along—a whirlwind of events highlighting the ceaseless approach of coach Chip Kelly.

When Jim Harbaugh packed his bags and left the NFL for the University of Michigan, it was assumed that he enjoyed the total organizational control allotted to college coaches—the players whose diets you can program, and the boosters who’ll pay for your house. But just a few years, Kelly has reinvented himself as the head guru of the Eagles organization after making a power play for more control. As the NFL offseason began in earnest last week, he wasted no time in picking up the phone, trading McCoy to the Buffalo Bills, swapping occasionally injured quarterback Nick Foles for oft-injured quarterback Sam Bradford, and letting top wide receiver Jeremy Maclin sign with the Kansas City Chiefs without tipping a replacement. Then, just as everyone was wondering if Kelly was running his team like an overactive teenager with a copy of “Madden”, would-be running back Gore got cold feet and decided to sign with the Indianapolis Colts, seemingly putting this master plan to a halt. But then the Dallas Cowboys got cold feet on giving Murray big money, allowing the Eagles to swoop in and stage a reunion with him and Bradford, who played on the same Oklahoma football team and remain close friends. Murray was last year’s leading rusher, and this marks the first time in decades that the league’s top back has been with a different team at the start of next season. “He may not have the open-field explosiveness of McCoy, but he might be a better fit in the Eagles offense because of his quick-slashing style and versatility,” USA Today’s Jarrett Bell writes of the personnel decision. Murray has had his share of injury troubles, too, and Bradford’s legs have been more dinged up than Derrick Rose’s. But for all intents and purposes, it looks like Kelly is ready to go to war in the shallow NFC East with this totally reimagined crew.

“Conventional wisdom says Kelly is too clever by half, and that all of his manoeuvring will blow up in his face when he discovers he needs a better quarterback and has nothing but goodwill with which to pay him,” writes the National Post’s Scott Stinson. “But Kelly has laughed in the face of skeptics so far, and it has worked out OK.”

It’s not as though there isn’t a method to the madness. Deadspin’s Barry Petchesky points out that Kelly has managed his roster as though he believes no player is truly essential. (Sorry about those jerseys you bought, Eagles fans.) “This plug-and-play philosophy of football, especially on offense, is a very college way of thinking,” he writes. “Kelly’s not the only coach to put it into practice in the pros, but he clearly subscribes wholeheartedly.” The Eagles also sign Ryan Mathews, another fragile running back with a lot of potential who will nonetheless backup Murray‚ allowing the Eagles to field a lot of power without wearing any one player out. (Murray carried the ball 392 last season, and legs, unlike running backs, are not a replenishable currency.) Give Kelly credit for trying—he’s really out here, molding the team to his liking even if, at the end of the day, we might only be able to look at his roster and think, “That roster’s sure been molded.” It’s the NFL, not foreign policy—why not do something differently and hopefully not cause too much trouble?

Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfixlinks@gmail.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email Jeremy at jeremypaulgordon@gmail.com. Read More »

Roger Federer has won 17 career Grand Slam singles titles but if there’s one thing missing in his trophy case, it is an Olympic gold medal in singles.

Federer, speaking after his exhibition match against Grigor Dimitrov on Tuesday night in the BNP Paribas Showdown at New York’s Madison Square Garden, said a gold medal from the Rio Games “would look good” but it wasn’t his top priority.

“I really hope I can play ‘til Rio. It’s not my No. 1 goal, my No. 2 goal, it’s just something I said maybe I could reach that tournament and see how it goes,” Federer said. “But I’ve love to compete in it and if I do, win a medal for Switzerland.” Read More »

These are heady days for the biggest clubs in English soccer, thanks to a series of new television-rights deals that will likely send media revenues for the English Premier League soaring to some $13 billion for 2016 to 2019.

Arsenal, the venerable London club, figures to be one of the big winners, since manager Arsène Wenger’s crew is almost always at the top of the EPL table and regularly packs the 60,000-plus seats at Emirates Stadium. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal (see above), Ivan Gazidis, the club’s chief executive, said Arsenal has a near-congenital obligation to its supporters to not only win but win beautifully. That can be tricky in a league that he sees growing more competitive each season. Smaller clubs such as Southampton and even Stoke are now challenging the stalwarts. Read More »

It has been a rough season for Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, but at least one of his side ventures is winning—on Wall Street.

Boeheim is an adviser to Cellceutix Inc., a Boston-area biopharmaceutical firm working to develop drugs for cancer and other diseases. In the last year, Cellceutix’s stock has more than doubled. Shares are up fivefold since Boeheim joined the company in the spring of 2012, at which time he received company stock as his only compensation, according Cellceutix chief executive Leo Ehrlich, who declined to specify the number of shares given to Boeheim. Since the granting of those shares, Boeheim has received no compensation, Ehrlich said. Read More »

Down two to Hofstra in the final seconds of double overtime in the Colonial Athletic Association semifinals, top-seeded William & Mary looked headed toward another soul-crushing defeat. But a three-pointer with a half-second left for a 92-91 victory kept the Tribe’s hope alive for ending an infamous streak.

William & Mary is a member of a club dubbed the Forgotten Five—the five original members of Division I since 1948 that have never made the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The others: Army, the Citadel, Northwestern and St. Francis (N.Y.). The Tribe play Northeastern in the final on Monday night for an automatic berth to the NCAAs. Read More »

Dallas Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray led the NFL in rushing with 1,845 yards last season. But as the NFL free agency period officially begins on Tuesday, history suggests Murray, the best available running back, is unlikely to duplicate what he accomplished in 2014.

Murray’s 392 regular-season carries were tied for the seventh-most in NFL history. Besides Eric Dickerson, the other running backs on the all-time top-10 list (including ties) for most carries in a season posted a total of only six 1,000-yard rushing campaigns the rest of their careers. Five of the eight rushers never again started 16 games in a single season and only two (Dickerson and Eddie George) were able to do so again more than once. It’s also worth noting that every running back on that list was in their age-26 season (Murray’s current age) or younger at the time. Read More »

SPORTS, THE JOURNAL WAY

The Daily Fix blog provides takes on the latest sports news. Features include The Count, a look at the most revealing sports stats, as well as regular live reports of major sports events. Go to the Journal’s sports page for up-to-date coverage on the latest in sports.

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About The Daily Fix

Jeremy Gordon is a freelance writer who lives in Chicago. He has written for TheAtlantic.com, MTV and Prefix and occasionally Tumbles and Tweets. The last time he cried was when Steve Bartman dropped the ball.

Jared Diamond writes about sports for The Wall Street Journal. He currently serves as a beat reporter covering the New York Mets and Major League Baseball.

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When Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao step into the ring on May 2, they will fight at the welterweight-class limit of 147 pounds—an odd, seemingly random number that has long held a special mystique.